“Fitness Minutes” Knee Exercise Video
Hello everyone,
In this week's "Fitness Minutes," I will be discussing proper movement mechanics of the knee and show you a self-mobilization technique followed by a few exercises to protect, stretch, and strengthen your knees.
When the hip and the ankle are not moving well, the knee has nowhere to run and few places to hide. So, in order to properly set the knee up for success, it is important to address not only decreasing symptoms in the knee itself but also maximizing mobility above and below it to address the cause of those symptoms. If you followed last week's video, you know how to improve motion at your hip. Next week we will discuss the ankle and its role in feeding good input into the knee.
On a separate note, many of you have shared your feelings of anxiety, fear, and anger during this challenging time in your life. I spoke with a good friend who is also a licensed psychologist and asked him if he could offer three tidbits of advice to help people going through these difficult emotions amidst the pandemic. While he had many suggestions, the following were in his top three:
1) Have compassion for your own anxiety, fear, and anger. Suffering happens when we punish ourselves for having certain thoughts or feelings and we really need to okay with ALL thoughts and feelings we are having. He reminded me of a quote "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."
2) Change our environment in sensible ways. Our anxiety can become activated from watching TV, as it tends to be more arousing than reading. So, experiment more with reading your news, as it is less stimulating for those vulnerable areas of our brains that make us more anxious, fearful, or angry. If you are going to watch TV, make it limited to keep you more relaxed (i.e. catch the morning news for one hour then turn it off). Our best decision making comes from being informed and calm.
3) Find the silver lining in difficult times like this. Maybe you have connected with family more, learned, or created new things or completed tasks around your house that you have been wanting to do for a long time.
I hope this helps. Have a wonderful week and stay safe!
All the best,
Lisa J. Baumgart, MPT, CAFS, FAFS, IFNCP
"Move to the dance of life - As our dance partner, life insists that we put ourselves in motion that we learn to live with instability, chaos, change, and surprise. We can continue to stand immobilized on the shoreline, trying to protect ourselves from life's insistent storms, or we can begin moving. We can watch our plans be washed away, or we can discover something new." - Margaret Wheatley
View the video below for this week’s “Fitness Minutes” all about the knees!
Provided by Lisa J. Baumgart, MPT, CAFS, FAFS, IFNCP, owner of Greylock Physical Therapy.
